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In a way, the geologist M. King Hubbert was right about "peak oil," just as Thomas Malthus was right about the number of people rising faster than the production of food: If people don't improve the technology of production, the human race will be doomed, either to extinction or to a miserably "sustainable" life not far advanced from the Stone Age.

Fortunately for those who are comfortable in a 21st-century middle-class American lifestyle, and even more fortunately for those who aspire to such comfort, technologists have improved the production of energy and food, and they continue to do so.

Even though the absolute size of any energy resource is finite, technology may increase the percentage of the resource that can be recovered.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration announced last summer that proven reserves of oil were up 12% in 2010 and proven reserves of gas were up 13%, the new numbers higher than at any time since 1977, when the EIA was created.

Most of the change had nothing to do with new discoveries. Oil and gas deposits that were known to exist became more accessible, primarily through the use of better technology for hydraulic fracturing of shale rock and horizontal drilling of narrow deposits of oil and gas.

Geologic Lottery

"We have more oil and natural gas than anyone thought possible even a few years ago," said Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute after the latest estimate was published. "We are sitting on a lottery ticket that could spur millions of jobs, billions of dollars in revenue for the government, and more than 100 years of energy for our country."

Unfortunately, there is an alliance of people against cashing the ticket. Some disparage the American lifestyle, especially its freedom of mobility in cars. Others fear the costs of new technologies -- whether the costs be financial, social, or environmental. This alliance is available to support another group -- those who have or seek political power.

The U.S. government directly owns oil and gas deposits under the sea because it owns all rights to minerals that are farther than three miles off the coasts of the country, out to 200 miles. (The states own the subsea mineral rights within three miles of shore.) On land, the federal government owns 635 billion acres of land, more than 28% of all the land, but disproportionately it's land west of the Great Plains: 47% of the land in the 11 westernmost states, 62% of Alaska, and 4% of the other states.

The Interior Department estimates that there may be 23 billion barrels of oil recoverable from federal waters of the Arctic Sea north of Alaska. The government has granted permits for exploration (not production), but drillers face numerous challenges from weather, ice, and environmentalists.

More certain are deposits off the California coast, the Atlantic Seaboard, and the west coast of Florida, but the federal government has choked off exploitation there to please shore-side homeowners and businesses.

A Detour to Progress

By historical coincidence, many oil- and gas-bearing shale formations are onshore, under private lands and in states that have troubled economies. With the adoption of new technologies for producing oil and gas from shale formations, the U.S. could actually become more of an energy powerhouse, and with less "help" from the federal government.

For example, upstate New York could be a center of natural-gas production. Two of the important eastern shale formations, Utica and Marcellus, are named for New York towns where they are exposed at the earth's surface. Elsewhere in the state and for hundreds of miles to the north, west, and southwest, the two shale formations are thousands of feet below the surface, where they may contain economically attractive quantities of oil or gas or both.

Drillers in Ohio are plumbing the Utica shale with fracking and horizontal drilling, and others in Pennsylvania are producing natural gas from the Marcellus shale, but New York state is a leader in dithering. It has been studying the pros and cons for four years with no end in sight. A deadline for a decision arrived last Thursday, but brought only an announcement of another delay.

Why? Some local people and their elected officials are afraid their way of life will change.

"The fiscal stress that upstate urban cities are currently operating under does not relieve us of our duty to protect our municipalities from an invasion of unknown and unintended consequences," said Elmira Mayor Sue Skidmore recently, speaking of the drilling industry and its workers.

There ought to be room for them -- the city's population is down 40% since 1950, mostly due to closings of outmoded factories.

Elmira's official slogan, incidentally, is "Honoring the past, building the future," but slogans aside, Elmira has plenty of company and support in the legions of foot-draggers who oppose fracking. In addition to an invasion of roughnecks and roustabouts, antifrackers fear earthquakes, cancer, water pollution, land-clearing, road-building, wear and tear on existing roads from heavy trucks, and local poor people being driven to homelessness because well-paid drillers would bid up rents. In short, antifrackers seem to fear profits and prosperity.

A Dubious Choice

Some 250 U.S. communities and the state of Vermont have banned hydraulic fracturing, even as other states, including Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania, are cashing in.

The fear of fracking is like the joy of ethanol. The U.S. Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency are continuing a failed and foolish policy of using a share of the U.S. corn crop to make ethanol, to add to gasoline.

Congress mandated food to fuel in 2007, as much to subsidize demand for crops and drive up their price as to conserve oil or drive down its price. Even in 2012, when several corn-growing states experienced their worst drought in years, the EPA refused to grant waivers for economic hardship. In the crop year that started Sept. 1, some 42% of the national corn crop will be converted to ethanol.

Finding and producing energy is not easy. Governments should not make it harder.